(Photo by Jane grn)

Saturday morning was quiet. I never set an alarm for Saturdays though I still woke up around the same time regardless. Too many years of following the same schedule had trained my body pretty well. I waited, again, for a few minutes to see if there would be a morning Broadcast but nothing came. So, I tossed off the blankets and got out of bed.

My bed. I’d slept in my bed last night. I didn’t have anyone else in my apartment anymore. The brief moment of surprise passed and I made the bed. Brandi had kept her word and returned yesterday evening, bringing a couple of her siblings. We ate the casserole, played a board game, and then they left. Brandi had decided to go back with them. They said it was wonderful, beautiful, with so much to offer. A person could learn anything they wanted there and Brandi’s siblings were filling most of their days just sampling all of the classes to figure out what they liked.

I walked out into the living room, still in my pajamas, and turned on the news. Or, I tried to. The television turned on but channel after channel was either blank or displaying error messages. I pulled out my cell phone and tried to access the internet until I realized there was no signal. Not even my wi-fi was working.

“Huh,” I heard myself say before putting my phone down.

That didn’t bode well, though if enough people were going to the new cities then it might explain the situation.

“Hey, uh, aliens,” I said, unsure if this was a good idea or a bad one, “are you still listening to me? Can I ask you some questions?”

We are happy to answer your questions.

I suppressed the shudder at being right that they were still listening to everything I said and instead forced myself stay calm.

“I’ve noticed some things like the internet aren’t working anymore and it got me wondering what percentage of people have gone to the cities?”

We understand the internet is critical to your current way of living. We will ensure it is restored fully. We have already made sure to maintain your electrical grid. Approximately seventy percent of the human population is currently at our cities.

My jaw dropped and my knees almost buckled. Seventy percent?

“How are the rest of us supposed to survive?”

We invite all to come to our cities.

“Right, I know, but for those of us who stay here, what’s going to happen to us?”

We are maintaining your electrical grid. We will be correcting the errors leading to your loss of internet. If there is a food shortage then we will provide food for you. Any disruption to your regular life that is caused by our presence will be addressed to the best of our abilities.

People were going to work just yesterday morning, but now it seemed most people were gone.

“Did something happen yesterday that I don’t know about?” I asked.

Countless events occurred that were beyond your notice.

“No, I mean was there something big that happened that made everyone suddenly decide to go to your cities? Because,” I huffed, “yesterday there still seemed to be plenty of people here in the city.”

The city in which you reside lost fifty-three percent of its population the first day our cities arrived. The next day it lost another twelve percent. Yesterday another eight percent left your city. Not all of those people have come to our cities. Some have chosen to relocate to other parts of your land.

If those numbers were accurate then this was going to be a ghost town. Well, there would still be thousands of people living here, but there would be so many abandoned homes and apartments. Abandoned cars. So many things just left behind. And that got me wondering about other, more immediate concerns.

“Are there still police here?” I asked.

The local police force is no longer functional. Neither is your local, regional, or national government.

“What?!”

This was far worse than I thought. How could society manage without the guardrails of government. People could joke about hating taxes or whatever, but the idea of having nothing there to keep control of things was terrifying.

Yesterday evening your president and other leaders encouraged the people of your country to join with the cities. Many nations have made similar statements.

“And what happens to those of us who stay behind?”

As we said, any disruption to your regular life that is caused by our presence will be addressed to the best of our abilities.

“So if we need a police force, you’ll step in?” I didn’t like the sound of that since it was too close to them just taking over everything anyway.

We will not take such actions. We will ensure your electricity continues to run, your water continues to flow, and so on. We will provide food if needed. But we will not interfere with your actions outside of our cities.

“So unless I join you and your cities, I’m on my own as far as my safety is concerned?”

That is correct. We can tell you that violence has increased by around fifteen percent per capita since yesterday, with the most common acts being arson, murder, and assault.

“Great, thanks for that little update,” I replied sarcastically. “Is there anyone near me that I should watch out for?”

No one in this building has attacked or been attacked by anyone else. The majority of the violence has been focused around the luxury homes and apartments.

That made some sense, but didn’t do much to alleviate my concerns.

“So what’s going to happen once everyone’s in your cities?” I asked.

We will continue as we have been doing.

“You’ll just ignore all the land here? All the natural resources?”

Our cities are fully capable of sustaining themselves without taking anything from the land.

“So all the land will just be left alone? Empty?”

Empty of people, perhaps, but not empty of the rest of your planet’s biodiversity. Although we do not anticipate the land becoming empty of people. It will take time but an equilibrium will be reached and society and governments will be reestablished.

So there were no governments, no protections besides whatever I could manage on my own, and, judging from the blank television screen earlier, no easy entertainment. Nothing to do and nowhere to go unless I wanted to go to the alien’s cities.

“How long did it take you all to plan this out?” I asked, shaking my head at just how horrible a situation this was turning out to be.

By your time keeping standards, we found you on Monday and contacted you twenty five seconds later. Our cities were sent right after our first Broadcast to your planet. In total we spent approximately fourteen seconds calculating how and where to place our cities, six seconds calculating how long it would take for our cities to reach you, and five seconds studying your people and history so that we could communicate effectively.

“You realize you’re all responsible for the people who get hurt or killed now that we have no government.”

We do not control anyone’s actions.

“No, but you did remove the obstacles preventing a bunch of people from doing some horrible things.”

We did not instruct or compel or ask your leaders to abandon their people or responsibilities. We invite all to come to our cities. We invite all to learn and better themselves. We offer all things freely. If you come to our cities then you will be safe from all harm and illness and have free access to all we offer.

I almost took them up on their offer. Being alone had never really bothered me before but the idea of being on my own like this was not something I was prepared for. I pulled out my phone to see if the internet was back on or if I had any sort of signal. The signal was back and I immediately texted the school district to see if there was some sort of plan in place.

We’re sorry, the return text came at once, but all school districts have been closed. We recommend joining the cities and continuing your education there. Have a nice day.

This was a nightmare, except that I was awake and this was really happening. I looked out my window towards downtown and saw dozens of pillars of smoke rising up. It seemed the entire district was on fire. There were other, more distant fires coming from the ritzier parts of the city.

“This is a disaster.”

The majority of your city will burn from these fires spreading over the next two days, including your apartment.

“Thanks, I didn’t ask for that information.”

The aliens seemed wise enough not to respond after that. The wind did usually blow towards my apartment from the direction of downtown so I already figured I was in danger of just such a thing. What sort of idiot sets fire to a city and doesn’t expect it to spread? Or maybe that was their intention. Some crazy fire bug had been waiting all their life for this moment and now they were going to go and start as many fires as they can. In fact, with everything the aliens had said about protecting everyone who went to their cities, it made sense that anyone who wanted to cause harm would be unlikely to go. Maybe the aliens sent them back here if they did go to the cities and try to hurt someone. Maybe the aliens just killed them. I wasn’t going to bother asking them about it. I needed to get going if I wanted to keep from being burned alive since there wasn’t a fire department anymore.

Armloads of food, taken from my pantry, filled the trunk and much of the backseat of my car, along with my emergency bag, some camping gear, and everything else I thought might be of use. As I pulled out of the parking lot I glanced down to the gas gauge and was terrified to see I only had a quarter tank of gas left. That would get me an hour, maybe two away from the city but then I’d be stranded. Since I didn’t really have a location in mind yet, I figured it didn’t really matter whether I had a quarter tank of gas or a full tank of gas, as long as it got me out of the city.

I didn’t make it an hour out of the city. I didn’t even make it out of the city in my car. Barely five minutes from my apartment and I found the streets completely clogged with abandoned cars. The freeway was just visible from where I was and it looked like a parking lot too.

“I just need to get upwind of the fires,” I told myself.

Unfortunately, going by foot meant I could only take what I could carry. I had a folding wagon I could use to carry more stuff but the wagon needed room to move and the freeway and major roads all looks so congested that even on foot I’d be faster just walking from car top to car top rather than walking between them.

I could take the wagon through the neighborhoods where the streets, and more importantly the sidewalks, were less obstructed but that would take me dangerously close to some of those burning neighborhoods which was exactly where I was trying to avoid going.

“Maybe there’s a way around,” I muttered and got back in my car, reversing away from the blocked road and heading off in search of another way out.

I wasn’t very hopeful but I wouldn’t give up. I’d only accept the alien’s offer if I was trapped and cornered with nowhere left to run.